Do this when you next have an idea for a book

Try this and see if your next book idea has legs - word of warning, be prepared for BRUTAL feedback

This past week I discovered something incredible.

It was also a little soul-destroying and brutal, but it’s something I’ll certainly be doing again.

It was a new kind of litmus test for my next book.

Whilst I’m waiting on my editor to get back to me about The Betrayal, I’ve been working on ideas for what to write next, and like any creative who is in ‘the zone,’ I naturally assume every idea has legs and is destined to be my break-out book.

My usual formula for seeing if my ideas are any good, used to go like this:

• Write it out

• Ask questions of the idea and flesh it out

• Run it past my husband

• Leave it - then go back to it a week later

If I’m still excited about the idea a week later, I start to work on it.

But.

Also what happens with these ideas, is that I start to work on it and about 20k words in, I lose interest due to a plot hole/not enough drama/cba and I have many, many of these ‘beginnings’ that generally run out of steam on my laptop.

Then the other week I was at a crime writing festival and a lovely friend explained her procedure of seeing if ideas were any good, and, she told me, it was an almost guaranteed way of testing them.

I tried it and it worked for me, and so I’m sharing it with you.

It was simply this:

• Write the blurb to the book - the elevator pitch.

• Read it aloud to a ten year old and get ready for BRUTAL feedback.

I’d never even thought of running my ideas past my daughter.

Mainly because I write crime and assumed they’d be too dark for her to discuss, but as I wrote out my blurb for my idea, I realised, of course this isn’t too dark!

The blurb to any book is going to be on a shelf in a book shop for all to read, it doesn’t give away all the plot twists, it just provides the hook. The thing that makes you go from a browser into a buyer.

So I did it.

I read the blurb out to my daughter and asked, ‘so? Would you buy this book?’

She gave me a long look and then said, ‘I have questions.’

She instantly pointed out three plot holes that I hadn’t seen. Told me that one of the characters was unbelievable and that she didn’t like the setting.

‘Change those bits,’ she said, ‘and I’ll buy the book.’

In less than fifteen minutes she’d pointed out what was wrong with it and more importantly, how to fix it.

I realise that not everyone will have access to a ten year old, but, it will work on anyone who has the ability to be as honest as one.

So if you’re running your ideas to a loved family member, like I was with my husband, and I need to point out here, it wasn’t all roses with him - he was very much telling me what he hated about my ideas - but he was also, without realising it, being mindful of my feelings.

What you need is someone who doesn’t give a crap.

Someone who will listen and tell it like it is. Someone, like a child.

I’ve read this advice before in a writing book I can’t remember now. It gave the advice, ‘get your hook together and then run it past strangers. Just start up a conversation and say, would you buy this book?’

I read that and thought, ‘absolutely not. I am not being the lady who spouts out random book ideas to strangers.’

But it’s that kind of honesty you need!

And besides, if someone came up to me and asked me if I’d like to hear a book idea, I’d love it!

So tell your book idea to a stranger. Tell it to your child. Borrow a niece/ nephew/ mate’s kid and tell it to them.

One word of warning before you do - be prepared for brutal, honest feedback, and you’ll never do it any other way!

Have a great weekend,

Zoe x